Media giant Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) reported third-quarter earnings this morning and issued a stronger outlook. During the quarter, earnings dropped 38%, thanks to declines at its AOL division (parent of BloggingStocks) and publishing segments.

Excluding items, TWX's earnings checked in at 61 cents per share, topping the consensus estimate by 8 cents per share. Quarterly revenue slipped 6% to $7.1 billion, matching the consensus estimate. Looking ahead, TWX forecast adjusted earnings of at least $2.05 per share. This forecast is higher than the $1.98 per share the company issued earlier and the $2.02 per share that the Street expects.

A new executive team is trying to bring MySpace back to its former glory. By focusing on music, videos and games, it hopes to recapture some of its luster. With the MySpace refugees mounting, it's time for some new blood to make some brilliant, future-changing decisions. This week, the company is holding a conference for its global ad sales team to explore ways to bring in traffic and beef up ad spending.

MySpace is poised to haul in $495 million in ad revenue this year, down 15% from last year's $585 million, according to research firm eMarketer. In August, MySpace attracted 64.2 million unique visitors from the United States, off 15% from August 2008, according to comScore, while Facebook pulled in 92.2 million unique U.S. visitors – up more than 100% year-over-year.

It took a while, but the broadcast media community is starting to realize that Nielsen Media may not have the answers to all their audience-related questions.

So, 14 of the largest players in the space -- including programmers, advertisers, and ad buyers -- are shelling out some cash to see if there's a better way. The group claims it isn't looking for an alternative to Nielsen ... but let's do the math on this one. If they aren't looking for some new choices, then just what the hell are they doing?

Online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is looking to extend the reach of its Kindle -- a wireless reading device -- into the hands of consumers, and hopes that cutting the price will speed adoption in a price-sensitive world. Formerly priced at $359, the Kindle will now be sold for $299, though the more advanced Kindle DX will still maintain its $489 price tag.

Amazon, known mainly for selling books online before branching out into other areas, has made the Kindle a focal point of creating new growth for the site. The company has been offering generous 10% payouts via its affiliate program for creating sales, compared to the typical 4% paid on other items. A June 30 research report from Cowen & Co. obtained by DailyFinance estimated that 800,000 Kindle units had been sold so far; the company estimates that more than 2.6 million will be sold by the end of 2010.

Julia Boorstin covered an interesting topic over at CNBC.com the other day. The Supreme Court, by electing not to review a case involving Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), essentially said that cable companies such as Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) can pursue digital video recorder (DVR) storage on cable-system servers. By doing this, a perceived barrier to entry for subscribing to DVR has been eliminated: you don't have to deal with a clunky box. Cable should theoretically see an increase in customers who adopt DVR technology if remote storage is exploited.

Well, as Boorstin rightly points out, CBS (NYSE: CBS), Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC, and News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) Fox do need to worry. These DVR technologies basically translate to a drop in the economic value of advertising. Let's face it: who watches commercials when they don't have to?

Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA), a media company that competes with entities such as The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, and Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX), held its annual shareholder meeting last week. An article from The Hollywood Reporter recounted a few tidbits from the gathering.

As you can imagine, the CEO, Philippe Dauman, was pretty happy about the company's stock performance. He pointed out that it has been strong against the broader market this year. While that might be comforting, the longer-term performance of Viacom shares has not been so rosy.

Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF) is a stock I've been looking at for a long time. It often looked like a great trade. It actually was recently. On Monday, the stock closed at $6.26. That represented a great short-term rise.

I wish I had gone with my instincts and bought shares when they were below the $5 mark. But something always kept me from doing it. I was worried about the fundamental risk involved.

Every few months, it seems, we get an article or two that says Disney (NYSE: DIS) might be a buy. TheStreet.com issued an upgrade on the stock based on several metrics. SmartMoney believes Disney might be a great company for the summertime.

When it comes to Disney, every investor has to be careful. Take every analytical article with a grain of salt. Why? Because even though the fundamentals might be good on the company from a valuation standpoint, Disney's stock has disappointed investors many times in the past. As a long-term shareholder, I know what I'm talking about. And many other pundits have made the same observation: Disney always seems to be cheap to someone at any given time.

CBS (NYSE: CBS) programmed its Q1 earnings report Thursday after the bell. If the report had been a pilot, it would have been canceled immediately.

Revenues slipped over 13% to around $3.2 billion. CBS said it lost 8 cents per share. Talk about a failure of a quarter. Last year at this time, CBS made 36 cents per share. True, the comparison was a difficult one, since a change in distribution strategy for the international placement of the CSI asset enhanced the previous year's results.

But let's not get hung up on difficult comparisons. CBS simply had a bad three months. A very bad three months indeed. Oh, and I should note that analysts thought CBS might earn 7 cents per share. That seems almost comical at this juncture.

News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), a media concern that competes with companies such as Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Disney (NYSE: DIS), CBS (NYSE: CBS), and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, issued its Q3 report on Wednesday after the bell. The numbers weren't that great, but you know what? The stock rallied anyhow in the after-hours session, rising over 3%. That's typical of what's been happening: Stocks are going higher even on weak news. Maybe the bears truly are heading back to hibernation.

News Corp. revenues declined by 16%. In terms of earnings, we'll look at operating income since, in this particular case, the numbers involve a lot of gains. This metric dropped 46%. And cash flow from operations for the nine-month period plunged well over 50%.

Disney (NYSE: DIS), a media conglomerate that competes with CBS (NYSE: CBS), Viacom (NYSE: VIA), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), will report fiscal second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, May 5. And it appears that investors should be prepared for a significant decline in the bottom line. Analysts believe that income may drop by over 30% to $0.40 per share. Yep, those magical days of profit growth are, for the time being, a thing of the past.

And it's not difficult to understand why. Disney is battling a recession. Consumers aren't spending money. They need all kinds of promotions and discounts to get them to open their wallets. So, theme parks and consumer products are understandably challenged. And then there's the advertising recession. That affects Disney's media properties. DVD sales? They're not as robust as they used to be. All in all, this is not a great time to be a shareholder of the Mouse.

If Viacom's (NYSE: VIA) first-quarter earnings were a sweeps program, it probably wouldn't achieve a high rating. That's because the plot of the press release's narrative centered on one depressing theme: decline.

Let's begin at the top. Sales decreased 8% (you're about to switch the channel already, I know). Operating income was down by 22%. And adjusted income decreased 34%. Income at the media division was down 9%, and the loss in the film department nearly doubled!

But, hey, profits beat estimates, at least. According to Bloomberg, Viacom was only supposed to do around 25 cents per share. In fact, shares of Viacom rallied over 5% in the after-hours session Thursday on the news.

Another day, another rally. Makes you want to buy, doesn't it? While my cold, frosty bearishness is beginning to thaw a little bit based on recent market price action, don't call me a bull just yet. Believe me, I can't wait for the day when I am completely confident about equities. That day hasn't come just yet, though.

Which brings me to the media sector. Have you checked out the one-month returns on Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA), News Corporation (NYSE: NWS), and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS)? I've been watching these three stocks and have noticed that the one-month performances on all of them, as of this writing and according to AOL Finance data, are pretty good. Viacom is up something like 21%, News Corp. has advanced 16%, and Disney has appreciated by 9%. I mean, that's more than pretty good: that's wildly impressive. And it gives you a good feeling, doesn't it?

Viacom (NYSE: VIA), a media company that used to exist as one business with CBS (NYSE: CBS) and whose colleagues include Disney (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, will issue Q4 results on Thursday, February 12.

I don't know, I don't feel a lot of confidence about them. According to this source, Viacom may earn somewhere around 79 cents per share in the fourth quarter. That would represent a drop of about 6% when compared to last year's Q4 results (which you can check out via this .pdf link). It wouldn't be so bad if Viacom merely met earnings expectations. After all, the media industry is working through a nasty cycle of contraction. Take a look at Disney's earnings and you'll see what I mean.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch, at 77, has been around for a while. But it looks like that while may be too long after today's report on News Corp. earnings and outlook. That report suggests that Murdoch wildly overpaid for Dow Jones. But he wanted it and he got what he wanted. The questions for long-suffering shareholders is whether what Murdoch wants is good for them and whether he's the person to lead News Corp through the troubled waters ahead.

Prospects are for more pain. Analysts are estimating a 22% drop in News Corp.'s fiscal 2009 operating profit to almost $4 billion. And with its stock down 56% in the last year, what could Murdoch do to revive it? One possibility is to restructure the newspapers in a radical -- but obvious way -- put all the content online and sell search advertising to those who want access to all the readers. That would cut the cost of the newspapers tremendously.